As I sank deeper into the ocean, my body—riddled with metal, pierced by countless blades, even my own jutting from my back—felt heavier than death itself.
My blood rose in a slow, crimson bloom, drifting upward like a red cloud reaching for heaven.
Funny.
As if any god would take a monster like me.
Well... seeing as I’m about to die, I should probably tell you how I got here.
It all started—
just like this, actually.
---
Twelve Years Earlier
When I opened my eyes, there was only darkness.
My chest ached, and my head throbbed with a dull, constant beat. I tried to move, but my wrists were bound. My breathing quickened. Why couldn’t I see? Why was it so dark?
A sudden kick slammed into my ribs, sending me rolling across the floor.
“You move when I tell you to move, child,” a deep voice growled, thick with a foreign accent.
I gasped, coughing for air as rough hands gripped my shoulders. Someone tore a blindfold from my face, and light—cold, harsh light—stabbed my eyes.
Across the room, another boy sat trembling in the corner. His skin, his braids, even his accent—he looked like me. Nigerian. Maybe even from my city.
His brown eyes were red with tears. He looked so small, so scared. I wanted to cry too, but I didn’t want him to see me break.
“Hey… kid,” I whispered, my throat raw. “Look at me. We’ll be okay, yeah? My dad’s strong. He’ll come.”
The boy sniffled, wiped his face against his shoulder, and nodded weakly.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Jay,” he murmured. “What’s yours?”
“My name’s—”
The door burst open, cutting me off.
A man entered. He wore a black hooded uniform, leather-like and tight against his body—something out of the ninja cartoons I used to watch.
When he pulled back his hood, I froze. His skin was pale, his hair black and smooth like silk. His eyes were cold, distant. He didn’t look like anyone from home.
“Where are we?” I asked, my voice trembling.
He smiled, the kind of smile that made your skin crawl. “Far away.”
“I wanna go home!” I shouted, trying to sound brave, though my voice cracked.
The smile vanished. He crouched, grabbed my face, and turned it side to side, inspecting me like an animal.
“Welcome to your new home, little ones,” he said. “From now on, you’re not Nigerians. You’re not Africans. You’re not human. You don’t exist. This is Nejire no Ha. Rejoice—you’ve been chosen as our new twisted blades.”
His words didn’t make sense. Maybe it was his accent. Maybe it was fear numbing my mind.
Jay kept his head down, his shoulders shaking. Hearing his quiet sobs made it harder to hold mine back.
“I said I wanna go home!” I shouted again.
His eyes narrowed. Without warning, he grabbed a metal rod and struck me across the back.
Pain tore through me like fire. I screamed.
“Two things we don’t tolerate here,” he said, his voice cold and steady. “Indiscipline and weakness. Harden your heart—and stop crying.”
But I couldn’t. The tears came anyway. I was scared, lost, furious. And under it all, something else began to stir—hatred.
Not just for him, but for every moment that passed where my father didn’t come.
He kept hitting me until I stopped reacting. Until pain became nothing. Until I just stared at him, empty.
When he noticed my eyes locked on his, his hand paused mid-swing.
“Good,” he muttered. “You’ve stopped crying. Now bow your head. Your eyes are pissing me off.”
I didn’t. I couldn’t.
He frowned. “You must love pain.”
Another man stepped in, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Calm down, Yamato. The boy’s stubborn, yes, but he’s new merchandise. Remember whose son he is.”
Yamato exhaled sharply. “So what do we do?”
“Take him to Ou-sama,” the man said quietly.
---
They dragged me through dim halls bathed in blue flame until we reached a massive chamber. A man sat upon a throne, two enormous statues looming behind him—one of a dragon, the other a wolf.
“Yamato. Toji. What brings you here?” the man asked, his tone calm but heavy enough to crush the air.
“The boy from Nigeria,” Toji said. “He’s… difficult.”
The man’s gaze sharpened when he saw me. “Those eyes… blue like frost. Is he—?”
Yamato nodded. “His son.”
“Interesting.”
The man leaned forward. “What’s your name, boy?”
I said nothing. I just glared.
He chuckled softly. “If looks could kill, you’d be your father’s reflection. How disgusting.” His smile vanished. “Beat him.”
Pain followed—endless and raw. Fists, rods, kicks. The world blurred into agony and noise.
When it stopped, my body felt like lead. My bones screamed. My mind drifted. Why me? Where is Dad?
He lifted my chin, and I spat in his face.
He wiped it off slowly. “Electricity, then.”
“Sir,” Toji began, “he’s just a—”
A flash of silver. A kunai buried itself in Toji’s eye.
“I didn’t permit you to speak,” the man said.
Blood spread across the floor. I wanted to look away—but he grabbed my hair and forced my face into it.
“Who said you could look away?” He pressed something cold against the blood. Electricity surged through me. My scream echoed off the walls.
“If you won’t tell me your name,” he said, his voice rising over the crackle of the taser, “then forget it ever existed. Forget your home. Forget your father. You’re nothing now. Nothing!”
He laughed. “Hopeless. That suits you. From now on, you are Kai Nashi.”
I gasped through the pain. “No... it’s... not.”
He smiled thinly. “We’ll see.”
---
They carried me to the island’s edge. Black waves stretched into eternity.
“If you want to go home,” he said, “swim.”
And he threw me in.
The ocean swallowed me whole. Salt filled my lungs. My body sank, heavy and broken.
I kicked. I fought. The more I struggled, the deeper I fell.
My dad is strong, I told myself. He’ll come. He always comes.
But he didn’t.
The water pressed in from all sides. My chest burned. My vision blurred. Maybe it would be easier to just stop.
Maybe I should die.
But the thought of dying here, nameless and forgotten, made something inside me ignite.
I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to vanish.
If living meant burning my past—then let it burn.
With what little strength I had left, I swam.
My ribs screamed. My arms trembled. The cold tore through my skin.
But I swam.
When I finally broke the surface, gasping and bleeding, he was waiting for me on the shore—Ou-sama.
“I was hoping you’d survive,” he said with a small smile. “You’ll make a fine blade. Now… tell me your name.”
I coughed, choking on seawater. “Kai... Na...shi—”
“Speak clearly.”
“My name is Kai Nashi!” I roared.
He nodded, satisfied.
The waves crashed behind me, and I knew the boy who once had a name was gone.
Only the blade remained.